Oskar Sala and his Mixturtrautonium fascinate me endlessly. If you don’t know what that is, please check it out on Wikipedia and listen to some performances on youtube.

I am trying to recreate the sound of the Trautonium, using different methods. This is a version I created using a Buchla 200e modularsynth.

The sound is created by the sawtooth wave of the 259e’s modulation oscillator. it goes into the 292e lowpass gate then into the 291e triple bandpass filter, from there the signal is split into the frequency shifter section of the 285e and the mixer (227e). There I mix the frequency shifted signal with the original for a sort of subharmonic feeling (an essential part of the sound design of the original Mixturtrautonium).

Everything is controlled by the Doepfer ribbon controller with the stand alone box, from there I run CV 1 (the horizontal value) to pitch of the oscillator and CV2 (pressure) to the “velocity” input of the 292e. (I haven’t been able to get the gate to work, since the Doepfer sends only 5V, but the Buchla needs 10-15V for a gate/trigger signal).

The video is a “proof of concept” more than anything. When I progress with the patch I intend to post better videos.